Setting Sail

for Jolly Olde England!

Dinner at Aureole on Monday was excellent and not overly expensive considering the location and the notoriety of the chef. Here are a couple of photos of the restaurant and our meals.

Inside the restaurant. Upstairs is the wine room. The Aureole in
Las Vegas has a wine tower that sommeliers 'fly' through
to retrieve bottles.

Dessert - not as rich or as huge as it looks, but delicious chocolate and cherries!

We were out in good time to get to the show, which was also quite entertaining. On the way back we figured out that we had walked to, from, or across Times Square a total of 10 times in three days!

According to the Concierge, the drive from midtown Manhattan to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal at Red Hook could take anywhere up to an hour, given the traffic around the Brooklyn Bridge construction zone. Of course, because we allowed that long, it only took 20 minutes! And gave us the opportunity to photograph yet another well-known monument partly covered in scaffolding! We think we might just start a new blog asking people to identify what's behind the scaffolding from just the picture and a few clues-we've got a big enough selection. This time it was the Brooklyn Bridge itself. You can see from the photo that it is covered and under construction for about ¼ of its length. Why should we be surprised?

Once we finally got on board the Queen Mary 2, we started our wander about. She is a large ship – at one time the largest passenger ship in the world, before Royal Caribbean built the Freedom class ships and then Oasis and Allure. She's still quite impressive at 151,000 gross tons, with a capacity of 2,760 guests. Our first impression of the interior was that there are many different areas to just sit or get a drink and listen to the musician who might be playing at the time.

We had lunch in the Princess Grill, our assigned dining room, and found not only our table but the first couple of our tablemates, a British couple going back after a week's holiday in NYC. We had a very nice chat and a delicious meal; we also have one of the best tables in the room, overlooking a small terrace on the aft of the ship. It's ours for 3 meals a day if we want – but there are other venues we also need to check out, like the pub and a restaurant that features recipes by chef Todd English. At dinner we met the other two couples, both American. Looks like we'll have a pretty good table for this cruise.

Unlike regular cruise ships, where a lot of the design focus is on the outer decks, the QM2 designers put a lot of work into the interior, having a number of different spots available for passengers to use. Even some of the corridors have small tables and chairs by the windows, with board games and puzzles left out for passengers to just take a seat and work on them. (It reminded us of Le Boreal and the penguin puzzle that Lily left out for everyone to take a crack at!) And we could see why. Although the weather was quite clear and bright Wednesday morning, it was very windy, and one of the open areas on Deck 12 was closed because of it. That's not to say there's nothing to do outside. There is one covered pool, the Pavilion, a splash pool on Deck 13 and a Terrace pool on the aft deck where the New York sailaway party was held. In total there are five pools of different sizes spread over different decks, but it does seem strange to not have a true "pool deck" on a cruiseship. But then, as was pointed out to us by another guest, this isn't a "cruiseship" it's a "liner" and they are different. And truth be told, they are. This ship was built for trans-ocean crossings and for speed. While a ship like Oasis or Allure, with its rounded cruiseship hull will cruise at about 20 knots tops, this ship, which has a deeper v-shaped hull is quite capable of a sustained cruising speed in the 30 knot range.

Here are some more photos of New York to round out today's report:

Two NYC icons  - the Statue of Liberty and the
Staten Island Ferry

The sailaway party

Tomorrow we'll try to post some photos from around the ship. Oh, by the way, though we hadn't seen much before we got onboard about the entertainment and programs – the Daily Programme (yes, that's what it's called) is chock full of things from special interest and current events lectures to art and drama classes and fitness classes and spa demonstrations. So there's really no shortage of things to do; they just don't advertise that fact before you board!

Oh, and the reason the line doesn't post a departure time is that the ship has to pass under the Verazzano Narrows Bridge when the tide is low enough for it to fit. The distance from water level to the underside of the span is 67 metres and the ship is 64 metres high to the top of the aft stacks. We got this shot just as we started going under the bridge, so you can see how little room there is:

The internet is rather fickle on board - the best times for access are early in the morning or late at night; so we'll post the ship photos as soon as we get a chance.